Leila Abdelrazaq is a Palestinian author and artist born in Chicago and currently living in Detroit, Michigan. Her creative work primarily explores issues related to diaspora, refugees, history, memory, and borders. Nothing is set in stone (narrative intifada) examines history as a series of stories that are either lost or solidified in time through repetition, power, and oppression. In Palestinian iconography, stones are considered sacred because they are tied to the land. They are also used as tools for resisting oppression. When an unarmed Palestinian hurls a stone at a heavily armed Israeli soldier in riot gear, it is a symbolic act of defiance against militarism and colonialism, pointing to an imbalance of power using materials of indigenous land. Leila has created an installation of hand-drawn images of Palestinian protesters and paper stones to address a discarded and forgotten story.
Free and open to the public.